Epitaxial film growth and magnetic properties of Co_2FeSi

We have grown thin films of the Heusler compound Co_2FeSi by RF magnetron sputtering. On (100)-oriented MgO substrates we find fully epitaxial (100)-oriented and L2_1 ordered growth. On Al_2O_3 (11-20) substrates, the film growth is (110)-oriented, and several in-plane epitaxial domains are observed. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity shows a power law with an exponent of 7/2 at low temperatures. Investigation of the bulk magnetic properties reveals an extrapolated saturation magnetization of 5.0 mu_B/fu at 0 K. The films on Al_2O_3 show an in-plane uniaxial anisotropy, while the epitaxial films are magnetically isotropic in the plane. Measurements of the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism of the films allowed us to determine element specific magnetic moments. Finally we have measured the spin polarization at the surface region by spin-resolved near-threshold photoemission and found it strongly reduced in contrast to the expected bulk value of 100%. Possible reasons for the reduced magnetization are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 12 figure

Anomalous transport properties of the halfmetallic ferromagnets Co2TiSi, Co2TiGe, and Co2TiSn

In this work the theoretical and experimental investigations of Co2TiZ (Z = Si, Ge, or Sn) compounds are reported. Half-metallic ferromagnetism is predicted for all three compounds with only two bands crossing the Fermi energy in the majority channel. The magnetic moments fulfill the Slater-Pauling rule and the Curie temperatures are well above room temperature. All compounds show a metallic like resistivity for low temperatures up to their Curie temperature, above the resistivity changes to semiconducting like behavior. A large negative magnetoresistance of 55% is observed for Co2TiSn at room temperature in an applied magnetic field of 4T which is comparable to the large negative magnetoresistances of the manganites. The Seebeck coefficients are negative for all three compounds and reach their maximum values at their respective Curie temperatures and stay almost constant up to 950 K. The highest value achieved is -52muV/K m for Co2TiSn which is large for a metal. The combination of half-metallicity and the constant large Seebeck coefficient over a wide temperature range makes these compounds interesting materials for thermoelectric applications and further spincaloric investigations.Comment: 4 pages 4 figure

Ion beam induced modification of exchange interaction and spin-orbit coupling in the Co2_2FeSi Heusler compound

A Co$_2$FeSi (CFS) film with L2$_1$ structure was irradiated with different fluences of 30 keV Ga$^+$ ions. Structural modifications were subsequently studied using the longitudinal (LMOKE) and quadratic (QMOKE) magneto-optical Kerr effect. Both the coercivity and the LMOKE amplitude were found to show a similar behavior upon irradiation: they are nearly constant up to ion fluences of $\approx6\times10^{15}$ ion/cm$^2$, while they decrease with further increasing fluences and finally vanish at a fluence of $\approx9\times10^{16}$ ion/cm$^2$, when the sample becomes paramagnetic. However, contrary to this behavior, the QMOKE signal nearly vanishes even for the smallest applied fluence of $3\times10^{14}$ ion/cm$^2$. We attribute this reduction of the QMOKE signal to an irradiation-induced degeneration of second or higher order spin-orbit coupling, which already happens at small fluences of 30 keV Ga$^+$ ions. On the other hand, the reduction of coercivity and LMOKE signal with high ion fluences is probably caused by a reduction of the exchange interaction within the film material

High energy, high resolution photoelectron spectroscopy of Co2Mn(1-x)Fe(x)Si

This work reports on high resolution photoelectron spectroscopy for the valence band of Co2Mn(1-x)Fe(x)Si (x=0,0.5,1) excited by photons of about 8 keV energy. The measurements show a good agreement to calculations of the electronic structure using the LDA+U scheme. It is shown that the high energy spectra reveal the bulk electronic structure better compared to low energy XPS spectra. The high resolution measurements of the valence band close to the Fermi energy indicate the existence of the gap in the minority states for all three alloys.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. D: Appl. Phy

Tuning of crystal structure and magnetic properties by exceptionally large epitaxial strains

Huge deformations of the crystal lattice can be achieved in materials with inherent structural instability by epitaxial straining. By coherent growth on seven different substrates the in-plane lattice constants of 50 nm thick Fe70Pd30 films are continuously varied. The maximum epitaxial strain reaches 8,3 % relative to the fcc lattice. The in-plane lattice strain results in a remarkable tetragonal distortion ranging from c/abct = 1.09 to 1.39, covering most of the Bain transformation path from fcc to bcc crystal structure. This has dramatic consequences for the magnetic key properties. Magnetometry and X-ray circular dichroism (XMCD) measurements show that Curie temperature, orbital magnetic moment, and magnetocrystalline anisotropy are tuned over broad ranges.Comment: manuscript, 3 figures, auxiliary materia

Role of defects and disorder in the half-metallic full-Heusler compounds

Half-metallic ferromagnets and especially the full-Heusler alloys containing Co are at the center of scientific research due to their potential applications in spintronics. For realistic devices it is important to control accurately the creation of defects in these alloys. We review some of our late results on the role of defects and impurities in these compounds. More precisely we present results for the following cases (i) doping and disorder in Co$_2$Cr(Mn)Al(Si) alloys, (ii) half-metallic ferrimagnetism appeared due to the creation of Cr(Mn) antisites in these alloys, (iii) Co-doping in Mn$_2$VAl(Si) alloys leading to half-metallic antiferromagnetism, and finally (iv) the occurrence of vacancies in the full-Heusler alloys containing Co and Mn. These results are susceptible of encouraging further theoretical and experimental research in the properties of these compounds.Comment: Chapter intended for a book with contributions of the invited speakers of the International Conference on Nanoscale Magnetism 2007. Revised version contains new figure

Multi-Mode Front Lens for Momentum Microscopy: Part II Experiments

We have experimentally demonstrated different operating modes for the front lenses of the momentum microscopes described in Part I. Measurements at energies from vacuum UV at a high-harmonic generation (HHG)-based source to the soft and hard X-ray range at a synchrotron facility validated the results of theoretical ray-tracing calculations. The key element is a ring electrode concentric with the extractor electrode, which can tailor the field in the gap. First, the gap-lens-assisted extractor mode reduces the field strength at the sample while mitigating image aberrations. This mode gave good results in all spectral ranges. Secondly, by compensating the field at the sample surface with a negative voltage at the ring electrode we can operate in zero-field mode, which is beneficial for operando experiments. Finally, higher negative voltages establish the repeller mode, which removes all slow electrons below a certain kinetic energy to eliminate the primary contribution to the space-charge interaction in pump-probe experiments. The switch from extractor to repeller mode is associated with a reduction in the k-field-of-view (10-20 % at hard-X-ray energies, increasing to ~50% at low energies). Real-space imaging also benefits from the new lens modes as confirmed by ToF-XPEEM imaging with 650 nm resolution.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, 56 reference

Time of flight photoelectron momentum microscopy with 80 500 MHz photon sources electron optical pulse picker or bandpass pre filter

The small time gaps of synchrotron radiation in conventional multi bunch mode 100 500 MHz or laser based sources with high pulse rate 80 MHz are prohibitive for time of flight ToF based photoelectron spectroscopy. Detectors with time resolution in the 100 ps range yield only 20 100 resolved time slices within the small time gap. Here we present two techniques of implementing efficient ToF recording at sources with high repetition rate. A fast electron optical beam blanking unit with GHz bandwidth, integrated in a photoelectron momentum microscope, allows electron optical pulse picking with any desired repetition period. Aberration free momentum distributions have been recorded at reduced pulse periods of 5 MHz at MAX II and 1.25 MHz at BESSY II . The approach is compared with two alternative solutions a bandpass pre filter here a hemispherical analyzer or a parasitic four bunch island orbit pulse train, coexisting with the multi bunch pattern on the main orbit. Chopping in the time domain or bandpass pre selection in the energy domain can both enable efficient ToF spectroscopy and photoelectron momentum microscopy at 100 500 MHz synchrotrons, highly repetitive lasers or cavity enhanced high harmonic sources. The high photon flux of a UV laser 80 MHz, lt;1 meV bandwidth facilitates momentum microscopy with an energy resolution of 4.2 meV and an analyzed region of interest ROI down to lt;800 nm. In this novel approach to sub m ARPES the ROI is defined by a small field aperture in an intermediate Gaussian image, regardless of the size of the photon spo